Synthesizers Dot Com

Synthesizers Dot Com, (also known as "DOTCOM" or ".COM"), manufactures synthesizer modules in the 5U format.

Technical information about Synthesizers.com products can be found here.

The company was founded by Roger Arrick. Here's more about Roger in his own words:

"In the mid-70's I began learning electronics and building my first computers. At that same time I became interested in synthesizers after hearing to Yes, Switched-on-Bach, Genesis, and the Who. I would skip school and drive to Arnold and Morgan music in Garland Texas to play the Arp 2600 and Mellotrons. My first synthesizer kits were from Paia which still work to this day! I successfully interfaced the synthesizer to my computer and wrote music-playing software for the CP/M operating system. The first song was Bach's Jesus, Joy of Man's Desiring.

Years passed and the internet came along. One day I discovered that there were a lot of people like me who loved vintage synths - big knobs, wooden cabinets, and those awesome sounds that you can't get anywhere else. Eventually I decided to build a synthesizer and make it into a product line. This would fit nicely into my existing manufacturing business at Arrick Robotics and the design would last many years. Since the best way to do business these days is over the internet, I tried to acquire the 'synthesizer.com' domain name but the owner wanted $50k. So, I settled for 'synthesizers.com' and began building the product line.

In the beginning, I met with Paul Schreiber who lives very close to me and had also decided to build a synthesizer. Paul is a smart analog designer and a great person. We got together and I was hoping we could come up with some mechanical/electrical standards so our systems would be compatible. Paul decided to do his own thing and we went in sightly different directions (we're talking power supply connectors and details like that). Paul choose the route of analog perfection, industrial grade pots, and gradual product introduction. I choose a more vintage design style, solid wood cabinets, and focused on making the products very cost-effective so many people could afford them. I also decided early on that I wasn't going to introduce the product line until I could actually ship complete systems. There had been some 'ethic' problems in this market and I wanted to buck the trend by delivering what I promised.

After a couple of years, here we are (June 2000), my product line is about 95% complete and I can ship systems and most modules. Letting people know about synthesizers.com was a strange problem. I didn't want anyone to know until I was actually able to ship products. In May 2000 I watched the access logs on the website as I submited the site to various search engines. Over the weekend of June 3rd the logs went crazy but I didn't find out that it was because of a posting on Analog heaven until I got a call from Zon. I don't have time to read these lists but I went to the archives and saw the postings. Most of them were pleasant, but some thought the whole thing was a hoax and I had to post a long letter of explaination. Here is the Analog Heaven Mail List story.

Whether all of this will result in fortune and fame or not, who knows, this market is very strange (and small) but I'm in this for the long haul and looking forward to making a bunch of cool synths and friends."